Why Hopping Green & Sams?
The firm's mission is to provide the best possible client service. You may hear that from virtually every law firm – but we know we are different. Helping you reach your goals is our priority. Our priority is assisting you to navigate the process and overcome obstacles in the pursuit of your business goals.
Proven Track Record
Along over 1,200 miles of Florida's coast and everywhere in between, We Know Florida – and we know it well. Since 1979, our firm has represented numerous clients in virtually every jurisdiction in the state. From power companies to manufacturers to community development districts, we have helped conceive, build and sustain major projects throughout Florida. With our clients, we work on major projects from inception to permitting to operation, and then permit renewal.
Talented Attorneys
The competence and extraordinary experience of our lawyers are critical to providing the highest level of client service. We endeavor to recruit the best and most experienced lawyers and law students to our firm. Our firm's many awards demonstrate our extraordinary bench strength, including our many highly credentialed younger attorneys who are continuing our founding partners' legendary track record of landmark victories and great results.
Our firm values cutting-edge knowledge and innovation. One example of this is my teaching. I maintain a university teaching role in addition to my law practice because it helps me to stay at the forefront of the law and to think about areas of the law in new and innovative ways.
Ralph DeMeo, Shareholder
I am continuously impressed by the caliber, experience and brainpower of the lawyers in our firm. Our lawyers include scientists and engineers, which gives our lawyers the unique ability to understand the complexities of our clients’ businesses. Others of our lawyers are former government regulators, which gives our lawyers the unique ability to understand the unwritten rules of government regulation. We bring these diverse talents together to provide clients with the best team to get the job done.
Doug Roberts, Shareholder
Our firm values the professional development of our lawyers. We organize regular lunch-and-learn programs to ensure that our lawyers remain up-to-date with cutting-edge developments in the law. Many of us engage in teaching and writing for publication. These opportunities help us to keep our knowledge and legal skills finely tuned.
We take pride in the talent of our attorneys and professional staff, the depth of our expertise and the teamwork we employ in understanding our clients’ business objectives, resolving problems and disputes, and helping our clients reach their business goals.
The lifeblood of the firm is the recruitment of exceptionally talented lawyers. We hire lawyers with diverse backgrounds but with the common trait of outstanding academic and personal achievements. We then seek to make the most of their talents by giving them the training, support, and challenging opportunities they need to become accomplished lawyers of the first rank.
Diane Carr, Shareholder
Having served as the chairperson of the Recruiting Committee for many years, I am proud to say that the academic qualifications, brainpower, and depth of experience of our lawyers present them with many career opportunities. Most of our lawyers could practice anywhere in the country. I am proud that so many have chosen to practice at Hopping Green & Sams.
We have been recognized year after year by our clients and colleagues as a leader in environmental, land use, tax, legislative, and administrative law in Florida. We are pleased and honored that our practice in these areas is so well regarded, and will continue to do our best to deserve the confidence this reflects.
The Highest Level of Service
Every law firm promises its clients the highest level of service. But how many firms back that promise with their pocketbooks? At Hopping Green & Sams, we have designed our entire business model to deliver on that promise to our clients. Our structure encourages excellence while eliminating internal competition. As a result, each of our clients’ problems is handled by the most qualified attorney, rather than by an attorney focused on his personal bottom line.
The firm shuns a model that puts billable hours and competitive practices over quality and cooperation. Instead of an obsession with business growth, we emphasize tangible client-centered results and quality lawyering. The firm’s approach fosters ingenuity and teamwork.
We operate much like our clients, using fresh and inventive approaches and benefiting from the collaborative strength of multi-disciplinary teams. Many of our lawyers have education and first-hand experience in business, science, and government.
We ensure that matters are staffed with the best people for the job. Our compensation structure encourages staffing projects with the lawyer who has the most experience and knowledge in that client's area of need. Why does this matter to clients? Because our structure encourages cost-effective, efficient representation.
Our firm's core values enable us to offer the client a strong team with "bench strength" - with unique depth and expertise in every environmental specialty needed by our clients.
Eric Olsen, Shareholder
Our lawyers have the freedom to focus on our clients’ successes because our firm structure rewards it. As a result, each client’s problem is handled by the most qualified attorney, whether I handle it or I send a client down the hall to my law partner who has more experience and knowledge in the client’s area of need.
Clients do not come to us with easy questions, simple cases, or routine transactions. Clients come to us because of our well-earned reputation for outstanding service delivered promptly. We handle some of the most innovative and complex projects around. Clients bring us these challenging projects because they trust that we can produce results.
Our firm combines specialization with imagination to create innovative, successful solutions to our clients' issues and challenges. Over the years, our firm has used innovation and entrepreneurial thinking to improve our clients' ability to conduct business.
Leaders Among Our Peers
As a tribute to the founders' shared vision, the firm still exists in largely the same structure as it did at its inception. To this day, three of the four founding members are still together and the firm has grown to its current size of more than 50 lawyers, with an extraordinarily large and diverse client portfolio. Additionally, the legal team at HGS brings a remarkable history and "bench strength" that is unique in our field. With a developing legacy of landmark rulings and a string of notable awards, it is clear that the founders' original vision has been a success.
Hopping Green & Sams has been widely recognized for the service and value we bring to clients:
• Four of the firm's attorneys are ranked this year, in Florida Trend's "Legal Elite", an annual listing of the top lawyers in Florida.
• Seven HGS lawyers were recently honored by "Who's Who Legal of Florida" in the area of environmental law. Six of the firm’s lawyers were included in a total list of 36 environmental lawyers in Florida – Hopping Green & Sams has the highest number of attorneys listed for environmental law in Florida. Who's Who describes the HGS lawyers included in its selection as “lawyers with a proven track record” in Florida environmental law.
• A significant number of the firm’s shareholders have been named Florida Super Lawyers for 2009, a total of 14 Super Lawyers in the firm. Following an extensive selection process including a survey of 44,000 Florida lawyers, only five percent (5%) of the attorneys in Florida have been selected as Florida Super Lawyers.
• The firm, together with several firm lawyers, is consistently ranked by Chambers USA Guide as one of Florida’s leading law firms in the areas of environmental, land use, and tax law. The 2008 Chambers USA Guide describes the firm’s environmental practice, ranked best in Florida, as:
the premier environment and land use expert in the state, wielding a strong team that ensures depth in every environmental specialty possible. Many of these lawyers have been practicing this area of the law from its infancy. As a result, they have ... gained credibility with governmental and regulatory agencies. Skillful throughout its hierarchy, the team excels in handling matters involving administrative law, permitting and lobbying. It has also been instrumental in aiding clients through complex permitting.
• Two-thirds of the firm’s shareholders are peer rated at the highest level (AV) by Martindale-Hubbell.
• Several HGS lawyers are included in the 2009 Best Lawyers in America, including several who have held this rank for more than ten years. This includes attorneys in the fields of: environmental law, energy law, land use and zoning law, real estate law, tax law, and water law. The firm’s number of lawyers listed in Environmental Law is the third highest in the country for any one firm, regardless of size.
When you hire Hopping Green & Sams, you hire a legal team with decades of experience at every level of government and in virtually every part of our state. Our clients come to us because they need top-quality legal expertise. Clients choose Hopping Green & Sams because we help clients through a project, start to finish, and we do so with a deep respect for the land, the law, and our clients.